Seven.Steps.To.A.Successfull.Business.Plan.pdf

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Seven Steps

to a Successful

Business Plan

American Management Association

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Seven Steps

to a Successful

Business Plan

Al Coke

©2002 Alfred M Coke

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Introduction: How This Book Can Help You

Develop a Powerful Business Plan

The Five Critical Ingredients of a Successful Business Plan xxviiiWhy the Traditional Planning Models for Building a

Business Plan Don’t Work xxviiiThe Traditional Approach: Good Intentions,

The Piecemeal Approach: No Way to Fit the

The Concept of backPlanning xxxiiThe 5-Page Business Plan xxxiiHow to Convert Your Goals Into Practical Business Behavior xxxii

The Key Questions: The Business Plan Self-Test xxxv

1 How to Create a Compelling Company

Story That Inspires Employees to Excel 1

The Company Story: The “Single Most Powerful Weapon”

The Three Reasons Company Stories Fall Short of

When the Story Pieces Don’t Add Up 5When the Story Isn’t Believable 5The Antidote to a Badly Managed Story 5How Slogans Work as Windows Into Your Company 6Organizational Energy Fields: The Invisible Forces

That Hold Your Company Together 10

The Nine Tools for Generating Effective Business

Growing Up to Be What You Don’t Want to Be:

The Three Stages of a Company’s Life Cycle 16Stage 1: Matching the Stage and the Story 17Stage 2: Growing Your Story 17Stage 3: Accepting Stagnation of Your Story 20

The Key Questions: Creating Your Company Story 22The Practical Applications: Bringing Your

2 The Practical Guidelines for Building a

Business Plan in Five Pages 25

How the 5-Page Business Plan Works 27

The Strategic Plan—Forming the Heart of Your Story 28The Operational Plan—Bringing Your Plan to Life 29The Organizational Plan—Defining Your

The Resources Plan—Analyzing the Support You

Need to Put Your Plan Into Action 32The Contingency Plan—Taking Evasive Action

Skills Development 48Coaching and Communications Training 48Explaining How Money Works 49

3 Strategic Planning: The Five Critical

Considerations That Can Help Your

How to Embrace the Fast-Changing Laws of the

Business Universe Into Your Company Story 59Bad Attitudes: How Organizations Get Into Trouble

Timid Companies: Thinking Small and Failing

Arrogant Companies: Three Deadly Excuses for

Not Writing a Business Plan 66How to Choose the Best Time Frame for Developing and

Proactive Long-Term backPlanning 69

Predicting the Future Versus Designing the Future 74

How to Tell Your Story Effectively With (or Without)

Guidance From Top Management 75Making Assumptions: Benchmarks for Cross-Checking

Case Study: Comparing Human Resources Functions 80

The Key Questions: Understanding How Critical

Issues Influence Your Company’s Story 83The Practical Applications: Framing the Context

4 Vision and Mission: The Two Key Anchors

That Add Passion and Purpose to

The Vision Statement: How to Describe Your Company

Don’t Confuse the Message With the Messenger 95

Sharing the Vision: How to Encourage

When to Use Multiple Visions in Your Plan 97

Mission Statement 105Mission Analysis: How to Keep It Simple by Defining

The Specified Task: The Heart of Your Mission 107The Implied Tasks: Unstated but Essential for

The Practical Applications: Writing Your Present

5 Strategic Goals, Objectives, and Tasks:

How to Set Them and Then Make

How to Translate Your Vision Into Reality 118

Painting Your Story with Bold Strokes 118Three Steps for Setting Big, Bold Goals 119

Step 1: Fire Up the Management Team 120Step 2: Get Leadership to Step Up to the Plate 120Step 3: Validate Your Strategic Goals 121Seven Critical Questions to Ask When Setting Goals 122How to Construct Realistic Goals 123Four Downsides to Using Mergers and Acquisitions as

Problem 2: The Clash of Management Egos 127Problem 3: The Human Factor 128Problem 4: The Process Itself 129The Bottom, Bottom Line to Mergers and

Acquisitions as Growth Vehicles 130

It May Not Work Tomorrow: Why You Need to Rethink

The Strategic Goals Checklist 131How to Set Critical Objectives 133

Time Factors in Setting Objectives 136Tasks: How to Focus on What Really Needs to Be Done 137How to Put Your Goals and Objectives Into Motion 139

Strategies: Big Picture Tools for Accomplishing

Using Tactics to Reinforce Your Strategies 143Get Started Writing Strategies and Tactics 144

6 The Six Driving Forces That Affect Your

Business Plan—And How to Focus on the

Best One for Your Company’s Needs 149

The Player-Driven Organization: Putting Employee

The Plans-Driven Organization: Achieving Goals Is

The Process-Driven Organization: Continually

The Products-Driven Organization: Producing the

The Properties-Driven Organization: Making the

The Payoff-Driven Organization: Catering to Status 167How to Find a Single Focus to Drive Your Company

Why the Customer Is Not Always Right 169How to Use Focus to Clarify Your Mission 171Shifting Focus: Is It Worth the Effort? 173The Payoff for Finding a Central Theme in Your Story 174

The Key Questions: Developing Focus 175The Practical Applications: Finding a Single Focus 175

7 Corporate Culture: The Four Ingredients

That Are Crucial to Your Company’s Success 177

The Three Steps for Developing a List of Core Values 179

Step 1: Determine What’s Really Important 182Step 2: Explain How to Put Each Value Into Action 183Step 3: Account for Any Gaps 184How to Prepare a Clear, Well-Crafted Philosophy Statement 186

Tips for Developing Your Philosophy 189Make Sure What You Say Is What You Do 191The Seven Key Operating Principles That Guide

The Principle of Direction: Know Where

Your Organization Is Headed 197The Principle of Structure: Provide Comfort

That Improves Performance 211

Situational Analysis: The Bridge Between the Strategic

Plan and the Operational Plan 213Analysis of Company Performance 214

Set Quarterly Performance Measurements 226

Coordinate the Operational Plan 228Summarize the Short-Term Plan With a

How to Improve Your Operational Plan Efficiency 228

Heat Loss: The Hidden Force That Chips Away

Islands of Power: When Control Is Lopsided 232White Space: When No One Is Held Accountable 235

Business Process Mapping: A Practical Tool for

Eliminating Corporate Excess 236The Payoffs From Eliminating Organizational Inefficiencies 238

The Two Major Resources Problems Facing Planners Today 269Building Your Resources Plan: The Ten Key Elements 271

Staffing Levels: How to Work at Peak Efficiency 272Information Requirements: How to Gather, Decipher, and Apply Information Effectively 273Facilities: Too Much Versus Too Little 275Technology: How to Keep Your Competitive Edge 276Dollars: Three Significant Behaviors That Affect

Your Business Plan Finances 277Watch Out for the Hockey Stick Approach 278

Preventing Post-Planning Veto 280Untapped Potential: Making the Most of Employees 280Corporate Culture Adds or Subtracts Resources 280

Explaining the Inconsistency to Your Employees 290Image: How to Capitalize on It for Your Company’s

11 Contingency Planning: How to Prepare

Contingency Planning: Preparing for an Unpredictable

The Antidote for Bad Mental Models 310

Known Potential Problems That Are Ignored 312Excessive Growth: Too Much, Too Soon 313The Early Warnings That Can Help Keep You on Track 313The Six Steps to Diminish the Negative Impact of a

How to React Quickly and Decisively to Disaster Situations 315

Decision Making in a Crisis 315

The Practical Applications: Developing

12 Implementing and Sustaining Your

Monitoring Your Plan to Ensure Compliance 325Measuring Everyone Against a Business

Preliminary Questions Before Process Mapping 343Process Ownership and Management to

Using Teams in Process Improvement Activities 345The Five Organizational Changes to Support the

Assurances for Leadership and Managership Development 347

The Two Techniques for Skills Training 348

The Key Questions: Implementing and

Sustaining Your Business Plan 350

Appendices 357–403

Appendix A: The Full Business Planning Model 357Appendix B: The 1-Page Strategic Plan 361Appendix C: The 1-Page Operational Plan 365Appendix D: The 1-Page Organizational Plan 369Appendix E: The 1-Page Resources Plan 373Appendix F: The 1-Page Contingency Plan 377Appendix G: Preconference Assignment 381Appendix H: Plan Continuity 391Appendix I: Master Action Plan Worksheet 397Appendix J: Short-Term or “Quick Fix”

Action Plan Worksheet 401

List of Figures

C HAPTER 1

Figure 1-1 Your story works in two directions

Figure 1-2 Four fields of energy that generate passion

Figure 1-3 The nine elements to create energy are all pieces of apuzzle that, when fitted together, create workforce momentum forthe plan

Figure 1-4 Where is your organization on the growth line?

C HAPTER 2

Figure 2-1 The strategic plan sets the direction of your company.Figure 2-2 The operational plan sets the strategic plan into motion

on a practical level

Figure 2-6 The business planning cycle has four phases.

Figure 2-7 Getting ready to plan has two important steps

Figure 2-8 The planning conference builds five plans in a singlesession as phase 2 of the planning cycle

Figure 2-9 The business planning must cycle through at least onemore level—Level 2 for staff and business units It may go to a third

or fourth level depending on the size of the company

Figure 2-10 The implementing phase puts the plan into motion It

is necessary to ensure the plan has a life span longer than the ning conference

plan-Figure 2-11 The sustaining activities must include regular ments of quarterly targets

measure-Figure 2-12 During the sustaining phase you must pay attention tothe leadership and managership activities required to keep theplanning momentum

C HAPTER 3

Figure 3-1 The old model of management was rational, logical, andlinear while the new model requires interactive relationships as thefoundation

Figure 3-2 backPlanning is a concept of starting at some futurepoint in time to establish a vision and goals, then working back-ward to confirm the mission Execution is then a forward activityfrom the base of the mission Consider the phrase “back planningand forward execution.”

Figure 3-3 Extend your time analysis backward to give as muchdepth to your business plan as possible

Figure 3-4 Planning creep is a common business trap limiting acompany’s potential.

Figure 4-5 The mission must have a higher-order purpose, and itmust help employees understand why they come to work each day

C HAPTER 5

Figure 5-1 Goals make up the body of the vision They are theincremental units of measure to accomplish the vision

Figure 5-2 Bold goal setting avoids planning creep (A–B),

establish-es high expectations, and requirestablish-es stretch from the workforce(A–C)

Figure 5-3 Multiple objectives are the intermediate steps toward thestrategic goal and ultimately the vision

Figure 5-4 Tasks are the many mission-essential things you must doeach day They are the intermediate steps to the objectives

Figure 5-5 Employees are confused when tasked from at least threesources

Figure 5-6 Strategies are the big picture “how” you plan to reachyour goal

Figure 6-1 When business units have different focus from the porate focus, loss of direction, cohesiveness, and teamwork hap-pens.

cor-Figure 6-2 A corporation with diverse business units must be driven It is the only combination that allows diversity The onlything that matters in this case is whether the business unit met itsplan requirements That’s the bottom line

Figure 7-3 Principles are the cross-check you filter the business planthrough to ensure nothing is missing

Figure 8-4 It does little good to develop more business while yourprofits are draining out the bottom due to operational inefficien-cies.

Figure 8-5 Heat loss starts when the company doesn’t work in acoordinated team fashion

Figure 8-6 Your operational plan should contain well-defined terly targets for responsibility and accountability As illustratedhere, the targets will not necessarily be equal across quarters

Figure 9-3 Organizations of the future will be fluid and flexiblewith an open architecture that permits free flow of information.Figure 9-4 An organization can reshape itself by using strategicalliances, strategic partnerships, and outsourcing

C HAPTER 10

Figure 10-1 The resources plan helps you determine both term and long-term requirements for core competencies in addition

short-to other prerequisites needed short-to accomplish the plan

Figure 10-2 Three approaches give you different results Planningcreep produces mediocre results Planned action gives you desiredresults The hockey stick does not produce your full potential.Notice the “ramp up” effort required in line A–B

you tailor your responses.

quar-Figure 12-3 There are three levels of performance that must betracked against the business plan They are organizational, team,and individual All lead to the strategic goals

Figure 12-4 During the sustaining phase you must pay attention tofour sets of activities required to keep the planning momentum.Figure 12-5 Business Process Mapping streamlines your internalways of doing work That is your fastest way to increase the bottomline

How This Book Can Help You Develop a Powerful Business

Plan That Works

This book gives you a proven method to help ensure your pany’s success Organizations fail to accomplish their goals forone simple reason: The management story being told is incomplete,inaccurate, and incongruent This book cuts past the traditionalproblems of planning and provides management with a document-

com-ed method of building a simplificom-ed business plan that works You’lllearn how to tell a story that is inclusive of employees and empow-ers them to participate in the company success

xxvii

ful, executable business plan You must:

1 Simplify definitions and use words in plain business language

2 Clearly demonstrate the relationships among planningelements

3 Successfully link the connections between your strategic,operational, organizational, resources, and contingencyplans

4 Incorporate all functions into a single planning model

5 Achieve total employee involvement by taking the ness plan to all levels

busi-I wrote this book for you as a manager, someone who is thesteward of any organization, be it large or small The concepts ofbusiness apply no matter whether you are an entrepreneur or amanager for a well-established, publicly traded company.Companies are organizations, no matter what their size, type, orproduct This means you must have an integrated business plan nomatter who you are or what you do Business planning is importantwhether you are a start-up company in e-business or working on amultinational planning team This book gives you a place to start,

a system to make sense of the confusion around planning, and amodel to build a complete package

W HY THE T RADITIONAL P LANNING M ODELS FOR B UILDING A B USINESS P LAN D ON ’ T W ORK

I can contribute to your success by sharing a method of businessplanning based on an approach that’s different from the dry, tradi-

tional numbers method My experience is that you are currentlyusing one of three approaches to business planning: traditional,piecemeal, or one with a deflected focus.

The Traditional Approach: Good Intentions,

Dismal Results

A large number of published works and many management sultants simply say the same thing They are replays of the samethemes of setting the vision, establishing goals, and gettingemployee buy-in Had the traditional approach of forming a plan-ning team and producing a document been successful, there would

con-be no need for this book

The traditional planning approach fails because the requiredparts are not integrated, the results are boring, and the process isnot completed throughout the company These three faults create adeadly waste of company time, money, and talent While the inten-tions are good, the results are dismal That is why traditional plan-ning appears to have management teams simply going through themotions over and over again with each yearly plan

The Piecemeal Approach: No Way to Fit the

Pieces Together

This book gives you all the elements of the business plan and showsyou how to fit them together Most businesses think they are plan-ning when in fact they are going about it in a piecemeal fashion.Company presidents need to see a simple but complete picture thattells them how to be successful Everyone needs to understand therelationship between strategic goals and next week’s tasks.Employees need to understand the annual targets and how theyapply to their performance Objectives need to be tied to accounta-bility and responsibility In a piecemeal approach I’ve found man-agement teams that do not understand the interactive relationships

of the parts and pieces of planning

short- and long-term views It must be strategic yet contain details

of the daily requirements The concept must include verification ofwhere you are today as well as documentation of where you intend

to take the business Finally, it must serve as a reference tool foryour employees and management as they conduct business This book creates a vehicle for bonding among your team.What better way to become a team than to deal with real businessissues in an orderly, professional fashion? And finally, this bookhelps you create a condition for full participation in the plan, notthe traditional “let’s get it over with” attitude Once you get yourteam on the same page, there will be no serious blocks in your plan-ning process

The Deflected Focus Approach: Falling Short of Your Company’s Real Needs

Planning models and theories that approach faddish status usuallyprove to fall short of achieving business success They don’t present

a complete process, resembling more bits and pieces of processesrather than a unified, logical pathway to the future They deflectfrom the true needs of planners to tell a story in business terms Forexample, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent onreengineering efforts, Total Quality Management (TQM), and thebalanced scorecard, all with minimum overall return These activi-ties may be good as specific tools, but they cannot substitute for acompletely integrated planning model Unfortunately, companiesattempt shortcuts with these overpromised tools and get fragment-

ed success Only by using a complete planning cycle and applyingappropriate tools at appropriate times can you ever achieve the fullforce of the business plan

T HE T HREE U NIQUE F EATURES OF T HIS B OOK

T HAT W ILL H ELP Y OU A CHIEVE Y OUR

B USINESS P LAN G OALS

There is a fourth option that overcomes the problems with tional, piecemeal, or deflected business planning This planningprocess puts energy and emotion back into the company It ener-gizes the workforce by tapping into employees’ purpose and passion The model encourages the use of intellectual capital andpromotes the empowerment of people to take responsibility foraccomplishing agreed-on, realistic goals The planning processforces examination of how work is done with the idea of eliminat-ing unnecessary and wasted efforts that translate to lost profits.This book will help you find a sensible starting point, illustratethe value of the parts and pieces of an integrated planning model,and build a case so logical that you cannot avoid writing a businessplan I’m going to be appealing to your most basic business senseand show you how to be successful in setting goals and reachingyour vision

tradi-Your Management Story

This book centers on your management story I like the concept ofstory because it conveys meaning in the simplest possible way Welive, love, and entertain through storytelling Today you may havebits and pieces of the story, but is it believable, consistent, andauthentic? Is the story being told in a way that your employeesunderstand, buy into, and implement with minimum loss of workeffort? A central message throughout this book is the need to haveall the parts and pieces connected in such a way that they reinforceeach other In short, they must hang together in a way that forms

a story of hope, passion, and opportunity for success

take the company The normal fear of vagueness often associatedwith vision-based planning is eliminated because backPlanning alsostresses forward execution This means the strategic goals are con-verted to short-term, practical, operational activities You will seethe connection between your daily requirements and where youwant to take the company.

The 5-Page Business Plan

The traditional business plan does not meet the needs of real-worldmanagers They need a simple, effective tool that is easy-to-read,portable, and keys them into what needs to get done My planningtool gives you a concise, functional plan in five pages I have beenextremely successful helping many companies build powerful plansusing the 5-Page Business Plan format Simple plans are popularfrom executives down to operators because they are convenient,concise, and user-friendly Use this book to help you consolidateyour complete business plan into five pages

H OW TO C ONVERT Y OUR G OALS I NTO

P RACTICAL B USINESS B EHAVIOR

Over the years I have met and worked with thousands of managers

as a consultant and trainer So many of you have told me of theneed to convert vague, esoteric, and often unrealistic planning intosomething concrete and doable I heard you Business planning is

of no value unless it can be connected to next year’s daily activities

* backPlanning is a registered trademark of Al Coke & Associates, International.

There is a way to make the connection between the desired endstate or vision and the existing present state or mission Those con-nections are illustrated in this model and they stem from a basicprinciple in my planning approach: Everything you do on a dailybasis must contribute in some way to your strategic goals Thereverse is also true Your goals must be converted to practical, dailybehavior

A critical point raised in my many discussions with managers

is the failure of planning to reach all levels That failure is directlyattributed to the planning model, the planning documentation,and the lack of planning accountability Typically, planning is athree-day conference held at a resort There’s a lot of build up,hoopla, and fanfare Promises are made knowing they will be bro-ken Numbers are bantered about as if they actually mean some-thing Tough talk is heard about roles, responsibilities, and account-ability The session ends with a charge by the president “to go outand do good.” Two weeks later the budget people tell you the plan

is invalid because it can’t be financed The salespeople react to thenumbers as unrealistic The manufacturing folks tell you they can-not sustain the production levels The information technology (IT)people need a complete hardware/software upgrade that requiresmillions of dollars And so on and so on Lengthy modifications arepieced into the master plan, distorting what was initially thought

to be a viable, integrated solution This delays the plan for months.I’ve witnessed companies still trying to get their plan together inthe fall for the existing year

Even with no staff distortion, at best, feeble attempts are made

to roll the modified plan to the company The norm is to move onelevel below top management before the plan loses its momentum.The planning effort is set aside, diluted, or ignored That type ofmanagement behavior is unacceptable To change it requires achange in the planning framework Built into the backPlanningmodel is a mechanism requiring the plan to be communicated toevery employee at every level The mechanism has a built-in safe-

works in the most practical sense Its value is that it forms a munications vehicle to reach every person in your company andtells them about the urgency of all parties honoring the plan Itdefines success as well as failure

com-This book will help make planning work for you The steps arewell researched, tested, and documented It requires you to get yourmanagement story together, develop a clear direction, establish aconcise, fully integrated business plan, and then implement theplan with methodical accountability The next chapters outlineexactly how that is to be done

THE KEY QUESTIONS: THE BUSINESS PLAN SELF-TEST

To help identify problems with the development and

application of a powerful business plan, complete the

following self-test of ten questions This simple exercise will bring to focus indications of your state of planning If you are not satisfied with the answers, begin the planning process

3 How complete is your business plan?

4 How satisfied are you with both the planning

process and the product?

5 Would you be willing to invest in a new model of

planning?

6 What internal or external forces would hinder your developing an integrated business plan?

7 Take a walk around your company and ask for a copy

of your business plan How many copies can you

find?

8 Ask employees a simple question: “Where are we

going with this company?”

9 Ask your management team, “How satisfied are you with our planning process?”

10 Ask anyone, “Have you ever read a complete

business plan for this company?”

How to Create a Compelling Company Story That Inspires

Employees to Excel

This chapter introduces the concept of a company story andshows you how to analyze your story against an establishedbusiness growth line You will learn to create a company story, useselected elements of your story to create organizational energyfields, and recognize the three stages of a company’s life cycle Youwill practice writing your company story and learn how to shiftyour story to prevent stagnation or failure

1

1

“And I suggest, further, that it is stories of

identity—narratives that help individuals think

about and feel who they are, where they come

from, and where they are headed—that constitute

the single most powerful weapon in the leader’s

literary arsenal.” —Howard Gardner1

I can think of no statement more powerful in setting the stage fordescribing the concept of story than the one by Howard Gardner

Originally I read his book Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership

to find a piece missing from my leadership models and subsequentleadership seminars His work is convincing evidence that it is morethan what leaders do that makes them successful It is who leadersare If leaders are people who tell stories that other people choose

to follow, then why aren’t company stories just as important? For the past few years I have been developing the concept of acompany story In testing this idea with thousands of managersfrom all ranks of business, I found consistent themes Most organi-zations fail not because they are badly managed Evil people withbad-spirited intentions do not run most businesses The opposite istrue Over the years I’ve found managers who want to do well butjust can’t seem to get the hang of this management job My con-clusion is that they fail because their stories are not consistent, con-gruent, or believable

Basically, employees want to believe in their management.They want to come to work every day to excel People need a cause

to believe in and work toward Leaders in history have known thisneed and have played it to both good and bad returns forhumankind Hitler understood the need for people to believe insomething As evil as it was he gave them a story Churchill also had

a story, which led his nation out of its darkest hour

The best example of how a leader creates a company story isone I experienced in a movie Critics had been very unkind to

Kevin Costner’s release of The Postman During the first part of the

movie I could understand their unkind critique Then suddenly themovie took a serious turn As the main character in the movie,Costner visits a community under the guise of being a postman All

he wants is a little food and a refuge As his character develops, astory emerges The scene where he swears in another postman, FordLincoln Mercury, makes a moving case that people need a story,need direction, and need hope The remainder of the film is aboutthe energy field developed from the story Costner tells, how it ispicked up by his believers, and how it emerges as the secondAmerican Revolution Although the movie is a fantasy tale, thereare important messages that we can translate into your businessplanning

T HE T HREE R EASONS C OMPANY S TORIES F ALL

S HORT OF E XPECTATIONS

The company story is a composite of how you represent yourself toemployees, customers, and the general public It is tied closely toyour reputation, reinforced by your integrity, and defined by yourbehavior Your story is the essence of who you are, what you believe

in, and how you act out your character in a business play Think ofyour story as if it were presented in a theater Your story can be acomedy, a tragedy, or a musical There will be a cast of characters,some good, others not so good, each telling their own version ofthe story

Most organizations are in trouble because their main characters

in the play, the managers, tell stories that don’t hang together.Three problems are associated with their composite company story.First, the story is badly told; second, it is not acted out in a coher-ent manner; and third, it doesn’t ring true The sales department isliving one story while operations follows a different theme Financehas its own world while marketing occupies still another cloud Is